October 03, 2023
NASCIO and Accenture Release Capitals in the Cloud Part II: Changing the Cloud Conversation
ARLINGTON, Va; Oct. 3, 2023 – Today the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) and Accenture released the second in a series on the maturity of state government employment of cloud capabilities, Capitals in the Cloud Part II: Changing the Cloud Conversation. The study revisits the first in the series by NASCIO and Accenture, which was published in 2021 and created a baseline for evaluating the maturity of cloud adoption across state governments. This second report presents longitudinal analysis, patterns of success and recommendations for overcoming persistent barriers to change with cloud services.
“This report looks at progress that states have made in the past two years and recommendations for further progress,” said Doug Robinson, NASCIO executive director “It’s clear cloud services have become a critical component of the state CIO operational portfolio.”
State health and human service departments are the leading adopters of cloud computing. Many have implemented cloud solutions to enhance operations and service delivery, especially for benefits claims processing and case management-based workloads. Other state functions shifting to the cloud, but not as fast, are employment services, transportation, HR/workforce management and education.
“The move to cloud computing is about states striving to improve services and outcomes for citizens and better manage government operations within tight resource constraints,” said Anita Puri, Accenture Public Service global managing director. “It is an essential tool for state governments to become more adaptable and resilient in the face of continual change and volatility.”
Additional highlights from the report are:
- 88% of state CIO respondents are expediting cloud adoption across operational domains.
- 74% of respondents say security is the most important benefit of cloud computing.
- 30% of respondents have completed a cloud strategy or roadmap, and the remaining 70% are actively developing strategies to optimize the cloud’s potential.
- A substantial 60% of organizations have also incorporated cloud adoption into their enterprise IT governance process.
- Hybrid and multi-cloud environments are increasingly common, with 23% of states’ total system and application catalogs utilizing Infrastructure as a Service and Software as a Service, double the level in 2021.
- 53% of CIOs indicated workforce skill shortages and lack of staff are impeding their organization’s adoption of cloud services.
The research can be explored in Accenture Foresight, Accenture’s new thought leadership app, which provides a personalized feed of all our latest reports, case studies, blogs, interactive data charts, podcasts and more. Visit http://www.accenture.com/foresight. The full NASCIO-Accenture cloud study can also be found at www.nascio.org.
About the Research
The study was based on responses to a survey of state CIOs (43 responses) in April 2023 and in-depth interviews with a subset of state CIOs.
About Accenture
Accenture is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading businesses, governments and other organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth and enhance citizen services—creating tangible value at speed and scale. We are a talent and innovation led company with 733,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and we are one of the world’s leaders in helping drive that change, with strong ecosystem relationships. We combine our strength in technology with unmatched industry experience, functional expertise and global delivery capability. We are uniquely able to deliver tangible outcomes because of our broad range of services, solutions and assets across Strategy & Consulting, Technology, Operations, Industry X and Accenture Song. These capabilities, together with our culture of shared success and commitment to creating 360° value, enable us to help our clients succeed and build trusted, lasting relationships. We measure our success by the 360° value we create for our clients, each other, our shareholders, partners and communities. Visit us at www.accenture.com.
About NASCIO
The National Association of State Chief Information Officers is the premier network and resource for state CIOs and a leading advocate for technology policy at all levels of government. NASCIO represents state chief information officers and information technology executives from the states, territories, and the District of Columbia. For more information about NASCIO visit www.nascio.org
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Contacts:
Joe Dickie
Accenture
+1 512 694 6422
joseph.r.dickie@accenture.com
Meredith Ward
NASCIO
+1 859 514 9209
mward@nascio.org